There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as Parth Jindal humorously found out a few years ago.

The MD of JSW Cement, who is a sports enthusiast, recently recalled his first meeting with tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi. “I was in New York working in a hedge fund for one of Mahesh’s best friends, and Mahesh took me for lunch,” Jindal recounted during an event at his BKC office in Mumbai. “It was like a dream come true for me. To have lunch with Mahesh Bhupathi — I could never imagine that the day would come. I had no idea why a 12-time Grand Slam champ was taking me for lunch,” Jindal said with a laugh.

But Mahesh had a plan in mind — to make India a better sporting nation.

Bite the bullet Bhupathi, also present at the event, shared how the current system needed an overhaul if we wanted to see India bring more medals home. “The system is pretty complicated and flawed at the moment — there is no easy answer,” he said. “There are many challenges across the system, and the scary part is that I am told that the tennis federation is one of the better ones. When it goes down to hockey, wrestling and boxing, things get a lot worse. I think federations, in general, have no part to play, as they are not interested in development.

Every federation has people who have been there for 35-40 years and they don’t care who is coming and going.”

While Bhupathi’s frustrations came as an athlete, the young Jindal’s came from cheering on his country. “I spent a lot of time outside India,” he said. “I did my high schooling in England, and went to college and [did my] MBA in the US. And every time the Olympics came around, we were all so fiercely competitive. And then they would all poke fun at me, saying you are 1.2 billion people, why can’t you win any medals? Other than cricket, where we would always trash the English, everything else was a big problem.”

Cream of the crop So how do we make India a top contender in athletics? Adopt a sport. Bhupathi said, “Ten of the top corporates can adopt a sport each, that is the only way that India is going to the next level. They all have the means, and believe that sport is something that will unite the country.”

Jindal, who has come on board, said, “I asked my dad [Sajjan Jindal], ‘We are so passionate about sports, we stay up and watch the Olympics, every cricket match, hockey and all, why don’t we do something?’ He then remembered his own conversation with Mahesh. He didn’t have the time to do it, but he was willing to give me the budget and support. He said if you do it, you better do a good job and bring medals back for the country. We want to educate the federations too — at the end of the day, it’s for India.”

It now looks like more plans may be in the pipeline as Bhupathi wants to take Jindal out for lunch yet again. The Davis Cupper said: “When you have a vision, you need someone to be able to execute it. Parth is young and I first noticed him when a friend brought him to watch us play at the World Championship in London. I thought I would take my chances. In fact, I am trying to get him to meet me for lunch again because I want him to build some tennis courts.”

Looks like the lunch paid off.

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